Educational device for teaching athletic plays



Sept. 1.9, 1933.

EDUCATIONAL DEVICE FOR TEACHING ATHLETIC PLAYS L. P. ANDREAS Filed Sept. 14, 1931 Wmvrss fig/M A-rromvirs Patented Sept. 19, 1933 1 1 92 5 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDUCATIONAL DEVICE FOR TEACHING ATHLETIC PLAYS Lewis P. Andreas, Syracuse, N. Y.

Application September 14, 1931 Serial No. 562,763

5 Claims. (01. -12) This invention relates to a method of and netic units with chalk, pencils or equivalent apparatus for teaching the various plays and markers capable of marking. upon the plate the counter-plays of football and other athletic path or movement or movements of any one or games and. is adapted to be used more particumore of the units from their initial formation 5 larly by coaches in training their respective positions so that the members of the class under teams in the fundamental plays to be made on instruction may easily and quickly visualize the the field so that each coach may exercise his several plays and thereby quickly comprehend own technique or tactics in the training of the the significance of certain cooperative'plays. individual members of the'team for the devel- Other objects and uses relating to specific 10 opment of greater. efiiciency of cooperation of parts of the apparatus will be brought out in the the players whether on the offensive or defensive following description:

side of the play. In the drawing:

The main-object is to provide simple and effi- Figure 1 is a plan of an armature board or cient means whereby the instructions of the plate arranged to. repr sen a foo a fi d p n 15 coach to the various members of the team-may which the ma t units of ppo g teams be carried on indoors or in other relatively are shown in more or less regular forma io small spaces through the medium of separate t e d ted n s indicating th paths of move units representing the various players of opment of the several units across and upon the posed teams and adapted to be placed in proper board to represent certain possible or probable 20 ofiensive and defensive formation upon a suitp ys o the members of both teams. able display board or plate and moved by the Figure 2 an enlarged face View, P y in coach to different positions according to cersection of One Of the magnetic p ye u its with tain possible or probable plays of the members the marker therein, the dotted line indicating of both teams each endeavoring to defeat the the surfs-Ce o the armature P ate- 4 25 objective of the other in a manner similar to Figure 3 is a side elevation of the m net c what would be actually practiced upon the'field. unit shown in Figure 'I'his instruction may be accomplished more Figure 4 is a p p of e same unit.

or l satisfactorily by first marking a represen- Figure 5 is a transverse sectional view of the tation of the players of both teams in proper magnetic unit taken in the plane of line 55,

30 formation upon a blackboard or equivalent sur- Figure face and then drawing the lines or paths of move- As illustrated, the armature p ate A- is ment which the several players would follow in Provided th miniature goals a and l', case of certain plays after the ball has been goal Zones and and suitable transpassed or snapped from the center to the full- Verse yardage lines arranged n u ifo m y ba k l b t; I h found t t th jnstrucspaced relation to and between the goal zones 99 tion may be made far more interesting and efficient by the use of a number of representative Upon the surface of h p e A are player units corresponding to the number of placed tWo s o p y units dand d-, players of both teams adapted to be arranged each set Comprising a plurality O in this 40 i proper formatign upon m t or board and stance, eleven units representing a correspond- 5 capable of being individually moved by the ing number of players in each team, both sets coach in any direction necessary to represent being shown as arranged in pp ed e ation in such individual plays as th coach may elect certain presrribed formation representing the One of the specific objects is to construct the actual formation of the players upo the fie d. several units representing the players in the The playing units d d' are dis--1 form of permanent magnets and to arrange. tinguished from each other by distinctive colorthese magnetic units in team formation u an ing or other distinctive characteristics so that armature plate of iron or equivalent material the units representing the pp d teams nd in such manner that the individual units may h ir v r plays may be easily and q kly be moved by the instructor in any direction visualized. across and upon the plate to represent the s illustra d, the units are represented movement of the player in any particular play by relatively light rectangular lines and in this without displacing the units from the display instance are placed in formation to represent plate or armature board. the offensive team, while the units d' are Another specific object is to provide the magrepresented by relatively heavy rectangular lines and are placed in formation to represent the defensive team.

Aside from this distinctive coloring of the units representing the opposed teams, all of the units are of substantially the same construction and each comprises a permanent magnet e-, preferably of the horseshoe type, and opposed layers e preferably of non-metallic material such as cork or other suitable substance adhesively or otherwise secured to opposite faces of the permanent magnet --e-, the adhesive being preferably rubber cement, shellac, or other waterproof material to assure more permanent connection between the magnet -e and members -e'--.

These members eare preferably made to conform to the outer contour of the magnet -eand to extend across the space between the poles of said magnet so that the ends of 40 under certain plays made by the members e'- will lie in substantially the same plane as the end faces of the opposite poles of the magnet, the object of which is to afford a relatively broad bearing for the playing unit upon the surface of the plate -A- to better resist accidental displacement of the units from the armature plate, particularly when the latter is placed in an upright position.

That is, all of the units -d and --d'-- are arranged upon the armature plate A'-" with the end faces of their pole pieces in magnetic engagement with the surface of said plate against which they are held'by their own magnetic attraction.

Under these conditions, it is evident that the several units may be moved by hand in any direction across and upon the surface of the plate A without removal therefrom to represent the actual movement of the players in the field the players of the offensive team and in order that the paths of movements of the several units may be visualized each unit is provided with a marker -f of crayon or any equivalent material which is preferably arranged in the opening between the poles of the permanent magnet with its inner end adapted to engage the surface of the plate -A- for marking the path of movement of the corresponding unit --d or d'-.

The inner end of this marker -jis mounted in a socketed supporting member -gwhich is slidable between the opposite poles of the magnet eand is spring-pressed outwardly by relatively light coil compression spring -h which is the supporting member gand to the intermediate portion of the magnet eas shown more clearly in Figure 2, for feeding the marker againstv the plate as the point of the marker wears away and preventing accidental displacement of the marker from the magnet.

The supporting member -gand marker J carried thereby, together with the spring -h, are held against undue tilting movement by the members e hich together with the poles ofthe magnet-e also serve to conceal the major portions of the marker and its supporting and actuating means, it being understood that when the poles of the magnet are placed endw'ise against the surface of the armature plate -A-, the inner end of the marker fwill be yieldingly pressed against said surface by the spring -h-- and that when the unit is displaced from the plate -A-- the marker fand its support -gwill be held against accidental displacement by reason of the connection of the spring hwith the supporting member -g and intermediate part of the magnet.

If desired, each may be provided with characters such as numerals -i, those representing one team being different from those of v the other team to correspond to the identification characters usually worn by the players in the field.

of the units -d and d'-- different identification Operation When the coach is instructing the players as to the various plays to be made under certain plays by the center player through the medium of the apparatus shown, the units --dand d-- of the two sets representing opposed teams, will be arranged by the coach in such formation as may be determined upon within the rules of the game by simply placing the units endwise against the surface of the armatureplate -A- where they are held by magnetic attraction in the preselected formation.

Now, assuming that the instructor is to demonstrate by means of this apparatus the most strategic positions which the players of either the offensive or defensive teams would take in the field under a certain play such, for example, as an end play by thelayer receiving the ball, in which case the instructor would first mark upon the surface of the plate A- a line -m-- to indicate the path of movement of the ball from the center unit -dto a second unit -dr representing the player who receives the ball.

The instructor will then move the second unit from its initial position across and upon the surface of the armature plate in the direction of the assumed play represented in this instance by the line nwhich is preferably made simultaneously with the movement of the second unit by means of the marker --j--.

Immediately following this movement of the second unit --f-, the remaining units of either set or both sets may be moved from their-initial positions across and upon the armature plate in such directions as the instructor may elect to represent the most strategic positions of the players of both teams necessary to oppose the objectives of the individual players under the selected initial play. 1

For example, if the second unit -:-dis moved along the line nrepresenting that particular end play, the other units -d-- may be moved in various directions to different positions upon the plate -A-- illustrative of the most advantageous positions the players of that team may assume on the field to support the ball-carrier in his object while the units -.-d'- representing the players of the defensive team may be moved upon the plate to positions representing the most strategic defensive plays, the paths of movement of the several units of both teams being indicated respectively by lines -0-- and --s-- which are made upon the plate simultaneously with and by the movements of the individual units.

These lines -1n, n-, --0-, and --s-- are, however, illustratively of only one possible disposition of the units to represent a corre- 14: sponding field play but obviously the units may be moved to many other positions to represent the most strategic disposition of the players for any predetermined possible plays without displacing the units from the armature plate while 1 the markers of the several units will automatimay be used for many other purposes, such for callytraceupontheplatethedirectionsandlimitations of such movements.

Although I have shown and described the apparatus as used for the instruction of the players in athletic games, it is obvious that it example, as in the representation of proper formation of military andnaval units under varying conditions of opposed forces; for the layout of various machines or other units commonly used in large manufacturing establishments; and in fact, for any purpose for which such an apparatus might be useful without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In an educational apparatus for teaching the various plays in athletic games, a horseshoe magnet adapted to be moved across and upon the surface of an armature plate, and a.

surface of an armature plate, and a marker carried by the magnet for marking the path of movement upon said surface, and non-metallic members secured to opposite faces of the magnet to extend across the space between the poles.

4. In an apparatus for teaching the various plays in athletic games, the combination with a flat armature plate, of a multiplicity of horseshoe magnets having the end faces of their opposite poles disposed in planes at right angles to their remaining portions and slidably engaged with the flat surface of the plate to magnetically hold the magnets perpendicularly to said surface with their closed ends outermost to serve as handles.

5. In an apparatus for teaching the various plays in. athletic games, the combination with a flat armature plate, of a multiplicity of horseshoe magnets having the end faces of their opposite poles disposed in planes at right angles to their remaining portions and slidably engaged with the flat surface of the plate to magnetically hold the magnets perpendicularly to saidsurface with their closed ends outermost to serve as handles, and layers of non-magnetic material secured to opposite sides of each magnet across the opening between its poles.

LEWIS P. ANDREAS.

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